The 13th Doctor Adventures, Volume 1: The Final Adventure
by The Hand of All
Summary: The Doctor has just regenerated... again. New body, old companion, same Doctor... But the End is coming... The greatest threat to the Time Lords has come at last and their only hope is a Hybrid Warrior to destroy the universe in order to heal everything... Will the Doctor get it right this time or will All fall?


Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the rights to Doctor Who or Welcome to Night Vale. This story is purely for non-profit, fanfiction purposes only and all rights are reserved to the creators of these characters and places.

episode I:

Off the Clock

Dr. Evelyn Smythe-Richter the newest history professor looked out at the empty lecture hall that would be her first class of students in just under fifteen minutes. Thirteen minutes to be exact. She glanced at the clock to her left above the alcove doorway.

6:47 PM.

Just perfect. Her first ever class teaching at the community college would be a series of 3 hour lectures once a week on Fridays. She began to worry about John. They were wed two weeks ago. He was a chemistry PhD while she was doing her own doctorate at this very university the previous year. He was not your average type of doctor. He loved Fridays. Those days of relief with no stress or work for the next couple days to come. He was gifted with drinks. Chemistry PhD, so obviously he had a gift and a love for that sort of thing. Yes, Evelyn and John Richter were reckless in their days leading up to the wedding. Both were very bookish when in school, but outside of the classroom was a whole other life of excitement and wonder.

Here she was now though. On Friday night. In a classroom of her own. John was probably sitting back at home waiting anxiously for his love to come home so they can enjoy a night of no work together. She knew that he hated that feeling of anxiety. But she also believed he loved her more. It would be many years before she came to realize how foolish she was as the first few students began to file into the classroom.

The students blended together, as they normally would in such a large lecture hall. She couldn't tell one Asian from another a few rows up. She thought when she became a professor that she would instantly feel a bond with each and every one of her students that would last their lifetimes. That didn't happen with this group.

Then the clock startled her with a low, monotonous wheezing, whirring groan just as the new hour arrived. Standing in the doorway beneath the clock, there was a young woman, blond hair, not too pretty (certainly not prettier than Evelyn Smythe-Richter), dressed in a man's frayed and torn black suit. She seemed shaken as if she didn't know where she was, what happened to her, or what she was going to do.

Evelyn put on her best, fake teacher smile to re-assure the new arrival and said, "Please come in. Have a seat."

And the class begun.

Her first class went as exciting as it could go with ice breaker activities, talk of the syllabus, and whatnot. This was not the sort of stuff that she got into teaching for, but it was necessary, she supposed anyway. If she were doing the teaching as she wanted to, she would dive right into a lecture about the rise and fall of the Tudor Dynasty of England. But her boss, known only as the Author, didn't approve of that particular style of teaching, so she was stuck, a first-year teacher doing everything as she was told. Well, almost everything.

She felt drawn to the young woman in a man's suit, as if her soul knew her despite them never having met. There was something curious in the way she didn't care for the syllabus or how she flat out lied to the class. Evelyn's lie detectors went into overdrive when the woman stood up and said, "I don't know who I am" before she casually sat back down. There was definitely a fire in her eyes, like she had just been through hell multiple times over and was now hardened, and angry with the clock in the room that she couldn't take her eyes off.

At the conclusion of the class, at precisely 10:00 PM, Evelyn was not ready to go home to her John. She had to speak to the very odd young woman. This was a student that clearly needed someone to talk to. This was why Evelyn Smythe-Richter became a teacher, aside from her intense fascination for history, it was this will to help guide young minds that were in need of all her skills. If she had met the young woman previously, the woman would have told Evelyn, "Be very careful what you wish for Ms. Smythe", before dashing out of the blue box with his rainbow colored coat flying behind him in the wind of Mt. Everest. Instead, Evelyn did not know the young woman.

She poured some tea for the two of them.

"What is troubling you, dear?" Evelyn asked.

The woman looked deeply troubled as if the next moments were hard to recall. "Pain… Light… and shit… oh my, is that who I am now? But shit… this one really hurt." The woman smiled fondly recalling an even earlier moment and laughed. "And here I thought the previous one was going to be a whopper. I should show Clara."

Concern crossed over the smooth, young face of Evelyn Smythe-Richter in a way that she wouldn't experience for many decades to come. She placed her cup of tea down and asked, "Who is this Clara?"

The young woman laughed again, burying her face momentarily behind her hands and her blond hair, and when she came up again, she replied, "My impossible girl. I told her that she wouldn't know how to properly reverse the polarity. I remember her." The young woman's face hardened. "And I remember what they did to her. And to me." The young woman then stood up, marching toward the door.

"Hold just a minute there!" Evelyn shouted.

The odd young woman stopped in her tracks. She put her hood up on top of her head and turned slightly to look at Evelyn.

Evelyn took a deep breath and began, "I don't know what exactly is going on. But from the way it sounds, we need to alert the authorities. There's a police box… one of those old police phones to ring for emergencies just at the quad. We can get in touch with the right people that can help you."

The lips of the young woman curled into a smirk.

Cue Intro.

Evelyn sprinted to the blue police telephone box in the center of the college's courtyard in the middle of the night. Not exactly how her night was supposed to go. But she knew that after a long series of pranks pulled by her husband John in the previous year, the box was now permanently locked, except to teachers. The young woman did not seem to know that. She banged against the doors angrily, trying to will them open.

Evelyn dug her small ring of keys out of her purse and dangled a single, silver triangular key in front of the young woman, who looked at her with shock.

"Where did you get that? Who are you?" the young woman asked as she snatched the key with the entire key ring.

Evelyn smacked the keys out of the young woman's hand. "I am a professor. And who do you think you are?"

The young woman raised her hand near the lock on the door to the police box and snapped her fingers as she said, "Smith. J-.. Jodie Smith." The doors of the police box opened in front of her. A blinding white light emanated from within, igniting the area around Jodie and Evelyn in the dark night.

Jodie smiled with a happy glee that Evelyn had not yet seen before on anyone, then Jodie ran headfirst into the box…

…And knocked her head a second later against the opposite wall.

Perturbed, Evelyn stepped into the small space and said, "For heaven's sake, it's a telephone box." She picked up the phone receiver, dialed three numbers, and handed the phone to Jodie.

"Shut up," Jodie spoke into the phone, then hung up and ran out of the box. She walked around the box confusedly, inspecting every inch.

Evelyn stood in the open doorway of the box. "Ms. Smith, what is wrong?"

"Hmm.. I like that.. Ms. Smith," Jodie said. "Reminds me of an old friend. Wait.. I didn't mean that. I didn't mean old. Never old. Wise, I mean! I meant my wise friend Evelyn!"

"Pardon?" Evelyn asked as she stepped from the box curiously to look at the strange woman.

"Nothing," Jodie replied, looking directly into Evelyn's eyes. "She is long gone now. Although you do remind me of her. Perhaps that's why they sent me here. Tell me, what year is this? How far are we from Sheffield Hallam University?"

"Dear, I think you need a doctor, come with me," Evelyn started to pull on Jodie's arm.

Jodie's eyes flashed a glowing orange energy with a look of shock realization, then she turned her head to the sky and shouted, "Clara! I remember!" She ran in circles around the courtyard, throwing her hands up in the air while continuing to shout, "I remember impossible girl! But I'm not a clever boy, nor am I running anymore! I am a doctor! I will find you!"

Jodie stopped in her tracks, pulled a blue probe from her pocket, and pointed it at her voice box to accentuate her voice at the sky. "Do you hear me up there? Banishment didn't work before and it won't work now! I will find her.. And my TARDIS… and I will find me again! And when I do, you will pray for the Daleks to come back to finish the job because when I am done with your silly orange planet, there won't be a time lord left anywhere in the universe!"

Meanwhile, a man, full of youth but grown mature over years of solitude, smoked a cigarette and looked out his helicopter window at the spectacle in the courtyard and smiled for the first time since that long night far away. The clock tower in the center of the courtyard groaned a whizzing, whirring noise that reverberated across the entire campus signaling that midnight had come and passed into a new day.

Jodie looked across the courtyard at Evelyn and asked, "What's gone wrong with the clocks?"

"They chime every hour.. It helps the hippie kids keep track of time for classes," Evelyn replied simply.

"No…" Jodie hesitantly said. "Clocks don't chime like that. Clocks go ding or some other stupid noise."

"Not here."

"Here? Where's here? No, never mind that question. You didn't answer the other question: What year is this?" Jodie jumped to her feet and shook Evelyn for an answer.

"Ms. Smith!" Evelyn slapped Jodie across the face.

"Sorry.. Regeneration… it's a lottery. But why this college? In this time?" Jodie sniffed the air hungrily. "August 17, 1963… Friday.. No, Saturday… Sorry, my perception of time has been tampered with."

"No it hasn't."

"It hasn't? What do you know?"

"When the clock goes passed midnight, it's usually a different day. You were correct in remembering what day this is."

"Are you sure about that?"

Evelyn extended her arm with her watch. "Yes, perfectly sure.." And then she looked down at the hands of her watch. 5:07 AM. "That's not right… Buggers.. This is brand new."

"You said it was just passed midnight.. But the sun is rising now."

Evelyn's heart fluttered as she saw the light rising in the distance. "Oh god.. John.." She pointed in the direction of the college's medical clinic. "Go find yourself some help and rest. I have to get home. I didn't realize how late it was."

"He doesn't miss you," Jodie muttered, subconsciously in a male's voice with her eyes glowing orange softly.

"I beg your pardon, Ms. Smith?"

Jodie pounded her fingertips against her forehead. "Sorry, old regenerations awakening. It's a side effect."

"I think you really need help, Ms. Smith."

"Really? Would you help me?"

"I don't think I am quali-"

Jodie grabbed Evelyn's hand, running with her back across the lawn, to the original classroom. She shoved Evelyn inside and slammed the door to the room shut. Then, Jodie moved a chair in front of the door below the clock to stand on. "Shit.. Oh my.. Sorry, But shit.. This body is too short."

"Ms. Smith, I really have to be going," Evelyn quietly said, unsure of herself or the other woman in the room.

"Why? You are right where you need to be for your life, not with your good for nothing husband."

Evelyn smacked Jodie across the face, causing her to fall off the chair.

"Ms. Smith!" Evelyn shouted.

"Ms. Smythe! Welcome back!" Jodie jumped to her feet excitedly.

"It's Dr. Smythe-Richter, and what do you mean 'Welcome back'?"

But Jodie was already ignoring the question, re-asserting her position on the chair, and reaching out to the clock on the wall with a blue probe. Light and sound emanated from the probe.

The clock on the wall evaporated into black smoke.

"Of course," Jodie whispered.

"What is it?" Evelyn stepped closer to the doorway looking intently at Jodie.

"QUESTION!.. No.. That's not me. I'm not going to look like an idiot asking and answering my own questions like Eyebrows." She stepped down from the chair and waved her hands animatedly toward herself. "Come on, Doctor, ask me the question. This is your job, my companion."

Evelyn smacked Jodie across the face again. "I am NOT going to tell you again, young lady. It is Dr. Richter. Who do you think you are?"

"Wrong question," Jodie gracefully touched the spot on the wall where the clock once was.

"Why did you say 'of course' when the clock disappeared in a cloud of black smoke?"

Jodie sniffed the air hungrily again. "The time… the clocks… they are wrong. Get it?"

"Not really, it's just this flimsy watch my husband got me."

"Yes.. Flimsy.. Just like him.. But that's not the point."

Evelyn once again slapped Jodie so hard she fell off the chair.

"Bit-.. Oh this still doesn't feel right… it will take some getting used to.."

"Get to the point, Ms. Smith."

"The only proper way to banish a time lord.. Time lady? .. Time lord… the only proper way to banish a time lord is to a place without time."

"What are you talking about? Time lord? Time ladies? A place without time? It's not possible."

"If you insist.. Then we could be on the frayed edges of time itself… where time doesn't have as great a hold on this part of the universe."

"Let's pretend that you aren't a crazy woman dressed in a man's clothes in 1963 spouting nonsense about time and the universe. What are we supposed to do about it? We are only humans at the mercy of the universe at large."

Jodie thought for an excruciatingly long pause and then replied, "I don't know. A time lord without a time machine. How redundant.." A look of wonder and realization came over Jodie's eyes. "I remember.. Time just keeps going on and on in circles, never stopping, always repeating itself. Doctor, does it ever stop? Will it ever stop?"

"Yes," Evelyn said matter-of-factly.

"Really? When?"

"I'd really rather not inflict my own religious views on college grounds.. Especially on a pupil."

"Please do."

Evelyn gulped, hoping that Dr. Sultan or the Author or the secret police were not listening in to the conversation. "After.. I believe that.. After we die, everything just stops.."

This time Jodie smacked Evelyn. "That." Another slap. "Is." Yet another slap. "Rubbish."

Evelyn held Jodie's wrist to prevent the final slap while looking rather cross at Jodie.

Jodie slid her wrist out from Evelyn's grasp, stepped back, and continued. "We don't die. If there was a such thing as death, I would have experienced it long ago. I once thought that regeneration meant that I died and some new man went sauntering off in my place. I now know that's not true. Well.. Obviously not… I just.. Keep going… But at least I know what I have to do now."

"Find help at the medical clinic?"

"My time.. Ugh, that sounds weird saying that word here in this place.. But my moment passed long ago. I cheated the rules. Everything ends and it is always both sad and beautiful." Jodie's face contorted into a hardened, determined look. "I have to find me."

Meanwhile … on Gallifrey …

The immortal traveler in time and space, Me, formerly known as Ashildr the Viking Girl who Died, sat in the chair of Rassilon in the ruins of the cloisters playing chess with another strange young woman wearing a man's suit as the stars die around them.

"I've played this game on a loop with you, billions of times," Lady Me spoke, leaning back into her chair after playing her queen. "This wager we have over this game doesn't matter anymore. I know now that win or lose, the Doctor will still come here. One of these times, he will get it right."

Cue maniacal laughter from the other side of the chess board as the credits roll.


End file.
